Professor Chen Yuan (1880–1971) was a prominent figure in the history of religion in China. He was also one of the earliest Chinese scholars to research the history of the Jews in China.

In his youth, he studied the Confucian classics but failed to pass the civil service exams. In 1919, he converted to Christianity. In 1911, with the fall of the Qing Dynasty, Professor Chen became a founding member of a Catholic university which later became Fu Ren University (辅仁大学) in Beijing; this then, in 1952, merged with Beijing Normal University (北京师范大学). In 1921, Professor Chen became the Vice-Minister of the Ministry of Education in the Republic of China.

Many scholars considered this book to be the first comprehensive Chinese study on the Jews of ancient China. It had a total of twelve chapters detailing the stone inscriptions of the Ming and Qing Dynasties; the horizontal and vertical plaques in the synagogue; the Holy Scriptures; the prominent figures in the Chinese Jewish history; the similarities and differences between the Chinese Jews and Chinese Muslims; and the condition of the Kaifeng Jews around the end of the Great Ming Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China.